Speck iPad cases are first made from hard shell plastic, covered with an easy-to-grip fabric material, and then printed with your favorite custom design. Speck iPad cases are customizable – and customization is free! Personalize with your name, message and / or your photo at no additional cost to you. Speck iPad cases are made in 24 hours, even custom cases.

A Dark Fantasy Tale…

Strange. Odd. Dark. Mechanical.

This is a strange tale. A mysterious gentleman writer presented it to me. I was a bit hesitant to accept it…I like to sleep well at night, thank you. I don’t like to invite potential nightmares into my dreamtime. However…perhaps my sensibilities are…too gentle. So, rather reluctantly, I am passing this story along….For those sturdier souls out there who are made of sterner stuff.

An Odd and Strange Tale that Gave me a Bit of a Shudder and a Shiver

“This is an important day for both you and me,” his candy-scented, skull-clad father told him as he rushed the boy into the expansive room. Mr. Apple raised his child with proverbs, as evidenced by his next statement: “Before you become a man, you must learn to live in harmony with another.”

A giant stood before them, and, unlike them, the massive creature had arms and legs attached to its torso. It wore strange vestments that rattled as it walked; silver, interconnected hoops ran down the side of its pants. The boy watched the giant in awe as its body moved with mechanical precision to escort Mr. Apple into the locked back room. At the push of a button, a heavy metal bracer unlocked and slid open, revealing a small cylinder that the giant rotated, and then pushed. Steam blew through the indentation as the doors slid open, all sorts of devices shifting to release the door. The rattling of cogs and springs working their magic within the door touched the soul of Mr. Apple’s son. The boy, nearly overtaken by the mechanical genius, almost found himself crushed between the doors as they yawned to a close.Lights flickered on in the room, revealing a system of conveyor belts pushed onward by a greasy black gear in the room’s center. Soon, the first potential bride appeared at the far end of the conveyor belt.

Her simple appearance gave off an impression in great opposition to the expectations of Mr. Apple’s fourth born son. The boy yearned for excitement and complex systems that he could wrap his mind around, not the trite or unsophisticated variety that tended to go unnoticed. He desired something expansive, something both logical and impossible to grasp an understanding of – an abstract construction of beautiful parts that fit together like pieces to a puzzle.

The brides rotated around the device’s center, shoulder-to-shoulder. Each showed off its greatest attributes. A good deal emitted a creepy vibe, and most of the others were simply too plain for his taste. But some obscure group of candidates, nestled in the shadows of the secret room, timidly shying away from the spotlight, caught his attention. The fourth born son tugged at his father’s cuffs, begging him to follow as he hopped as quickly as possible to the back of the room where a tiny group of brides pressed themselves against the wall, nearly blending in with the complex architecture.

In that moment, the boy felt the greatest sensation within him, as if he’d be taking home with him the greatest present anyone could ever give. Filled with utter bliss, Mr. Apple’s fourth born son stepped forward to greet his wife-to-be. She received him well, her mechanical parts unwinding themselves and separating so that he could fit his body into hers. As he comfortably positioned himself, she wrapped her arms around him, giving off a fiery hiss as the two of them became conjoined forever, a steampunk soul.